Kaifeng Bistro

Yiyi came back in the afternoon, but he didn't tell Tan Zhifeng what he had gained until the door was closed at night.Sure enough, as the two officials said, the first person to be attacked was an official named Wang Yaochen.This Mr. Wang is very talented. He was the number one scholar of Ding Maoke in the fifth year of Tiansheng.

At the beginning of this year, the Song Dynasty and Xixia started a war. He was appointed as the appeasement envoy of Shaanxi Quanquan, and went to the northwest to take charge of military affairs and appease the hearts of the people.Recently, the war in the northwest has slowed down, so the officials recalled him to the capital and asked him to write up what he saw at the frontier as a memorial to prepare for the next step of defending against the enemy.

"In my opinion, this Master Wang has his own opinions on the border war." Yi Yi sat at the table and said slowly to Tan Zhifeng, Zhuo Zhuo, and Changshang who were opposite him: "I listen to those scholars. They said that before he became the appeasement envoy, he asked the officials to exempt the Guanzhong rent and tax for two years, so as to calm the hearts of the people and let the people and soldiers unite to resist the Xixia invasion."

Seeing that these people were confused, he paused for a while, and continued: "Now that he has returned from Shaanxi, he has repeatedly analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of Song and Xixia, and recommended many capable soldiers. It is estimated that Xixia people should hate him very much."

"Okay." Zhuo Zhuo asked impatiently, "What happened that day?"

"As far as I know, it was more than ten days ago. Someone broke into his home and assassinated him. But it happened that Mr. Wang was writing a memorial that night, so he was not in the bedroom. His personal servant went to the bedroom to get him some But the gangster was obviously better. As soon as the two fought, the boy was stabbed to death. However, this also alarmed All the servants in his family rushed forward, the gangster didn't want to fight, just ran away, of course, before he left, he didn't know how to release the damn smoke."

"Are you sure what you said?" Zhuo Zhuo looked at Yi Yi suspiciously, "It sounds like you read it from a script."

"Believe it or not." Yi Yi rolled her eyes and said, "I heard from his cook, that cook saw a man in black running out of the house with her own eyes..."

Speaking of this, his expression was a bit unnatural. He happened to run into this annoying cook a few days ago when he was shopping. Who knew that woman was pestering him desperately, and always wanted him to take her to Sang's house Wazi watching a play...

"Tan Zhifeng!" Yi Yi suddenly slapped the table vigorously angrily, startling Tan Zhifeng who was concentrating.He didn't know why Yiyi's eyes were burning with anger.He vaguely thought that this information might not be obtained smoothly, but he could not imagine the truth of the matter at all.

Looking at Tan Zhifeng's blank eyes, Yi Yi seemed to be even more angry.He stood up abruptly, pointed at Tan Zhifeng and said, "I will never do these stupid things for you again!"

Although Zhuo Zhuo didn't quite believe Yi Yi's narration, Tan Zhifeng felt that what he said was very reasonable, and it was completely consistent with the conversation he overheard from the tavern this morning.

As for the second case, he began to think that since Yi Yi refused to take action, he might use a white jade horn comb that Zhuo Zhuo had been talking about recently to persuade her to go to the east of the city.

However, the next day, Yi Yi went out with a sullen face, and brought back the news that Tan Zhifeng wanted - the second person to be assassinated was Du Yan, who was then the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, who was in charge of military affairs important matter.In addition, Du Yan served as an advisor to the Yongxing Army a few years ago, and later acted as the magistrate of Kaifeng Prefecture. He was loved by Kaifeng people, and scholars called him Du Xianggong.

Recently, he has been very concerned about the war between Song and Xia, and it is said that he has been studying the offensive and defensive strategies presented by the generals.Although he is over sixty years old and holds a high position, he is still diligent and frugal, and there are not many servants in his family.Perhaps it was also because of this that the intruders alarmed the door of the night watch before they found out which bedroom the old man lived in.The old servant hurried over to check, but was brutally beaten by the gangster.

The door's cry woke up the servants and neighbors, but they failed to catch the assassin, and like last time, he released gray smoke after a few steps away.This time, many people around the inner city saw it, but they were instructed by the imperial guards when they came to investigate afterwards, so that they must not tell anything about the word "Xia" appearing in the sky.

It didn't take much effort for Yi Yi to find out the second case, because almost everyone in the streets and alleys of the inner city knew about it.Especially when a similar case occurred in Tianqing Temple, people felt even more flustered. Yi Yi concluded: "Look, within two days, the whole Kaifeng city will be full of rumors and people will be in chaos."

After hearing Yi Yi's words, Tan Zhifeng felt even more heavy. He frowned and said, "These two adults are key figures in the official family who are familiar with the military affairs of Xixia. The officials in the village are all in danger, so who would dare to make suggestions for Song Dynasty?"

"But, how do I remember..." Zhuo Zhuo suddenly interjected, "The person who died in Tianqing Temple was a woman? She seemed to be a wife from a rich family? It was called Sang... What is Sang?"

"Sang Sijun." Yi Yi said: "As for her origin, I'm afraid it's not so easy to figure out. Not everyone can enter Tianqing Temple. They never agree to the situation of those who live in it and practice." revealed to outsiders."

It seems that he has already gone to Tianqing Temple to ask, but there is nothing to gain.Tan Zhifeng thought for a while and said, "Okay, let's inquire slowly." Then, he stood up, took a piece of paper and a brush from the counter, wrote "one" on the paper, and asked Yi again. Yi said: "Wang Daren's family was attacked, what day was it?"

"Yeah." Yi Yi pondered for a while, and said: "I think it was around the tenth day of the first lunar month. The damn woman said that she hadn't arrived in Xiaohan yet, and she muttered to me a bunch of Wang's housekeepers repeatedly told her that it would take another three days." It’s nonsense to seal the melon, vegetable and potato cellar.”

"That's the ninth day of the first lunar month." Tan Zhifeng wrote it down carefully on the paper, and then wrote Wang Yaochen's name and official position on the back.

"Next, it will be the day before the day we all eat together—the twentieth day of the first lunar month. I still remember this." As he said, he wrote "two" immediately below, and then wrote the date in the same way as the previous line. He and Du Yan's names and official titles were written down.

"Brother Zhifeng, I'll write a line for you!" Changshang happily picked up the pen that Tan Zhifeng put down, and wrote "three". He looked at his handwriting with satisfaction, then raised his face and asked : "What should I write next?"

"Next..." Tan Zhifeng looked thoughtfully at the firewood burning in the wall of the house, and said softly: "Yes, what should I write next? The day is the 21st of the first lunar month, and the name is Sang Sijun, but later What we don't know is the key..."

Chang Chang wrote stroke by stroke, but he was stunned soon, he couldn't write Sang characters, but he felt sleepy for no reason, he put down the pen, huddled up in a daze, and returned to his own Asleep in the pot.

Tan Zhifeng saw Yiyi, Zhuozhuo, and Changshang disappear before his eyes, he took a deep breath, pulled out the water drop pendant hidden around his neck, and rubbed it lightly in his hand.

"Ying Long." He said, "You will protect me, won't you?"

……

Tianqing Temple is one of the four major temples in Kaifeng City.The other three are Daxiangguo Temple, Kaibao Temple, and Taiping Xingguo Temple.Tianqing Temple is located in the southeast of Kaifeng City, facing Huiji River in front and Chuitai in the back. There used to be a naturally formed high platform called "Fantai".In the later Zhou Dynasty, people probably thought it was a treasure land, so they built this magnificent temple here.

Tan Zhifeng once heard Zhou Yanjing say that compared with several other temples, Tianqing Temple has more flowers and trees and beautiful scenery. Especially in spring, it is an excellent place for Kaifeng people to go outing.

It is already deep winter and night, but Tan Zhifeng still can easily imagine from this majestic temple and the neatly planted rows of willows and patches of peaches and plums that in a few months, here will be What kind of moving spring scene will it be, with blue sky, clear clouds and colorful purples and reds.

He didn't expect that the temple was still brightly lit, and the high drum tower had just rang the night drum, echoing in the night sky, making the surroundings extraordinarily quiet.He carefully climbed up the high platform along the steps on one side. Looking back, he had a panoramic view of the surrounding scenery of Kaifeng City, and the busy people passing through the nearby streets were very shocking.

Tan Zhifeng secretly admired in his heart: What a good place to practice Buddhism!It's a pity that the life and practice of the woman named Sang Sijun came to an abrupt end a few days ago.

Tan Zhifeng didn't know if he could reveal this secret, but he knew that for Xu Gan, he had to try whatever he said, otherwise he wouldn't let it go.

He took a few steps back, gently stimulated the spiritual power in his body, stepped onto the tall courtyard wall, raised his hand to climb over the top of the wall and turned over.There was a piece of dry grass under his feet, and he landed on the ground without making a sound.Not far away, the rows of lights in front of the temple were flickering, and he could still vaguely hear the sound of the monks chanting Buddha's name at night.

There was no one in the courtyard. Tan Zhifeng walked along the courtyard wall to the back of the Buddhist hall. He didn't know where the smooth bluestone roads led, and he didn't dare to step on any of them rashly.He then walked back along the path by the wall, and there were rows of meditation rooms not far away.The lights in the meditation room were all dark, and it seemed that most of the monks were chanting in the front hall at the moment.

Which meditation room did Sang Sijun live in?Tan Zhifeng looked at the same houses of blue bricks and gray tiles, and didn't know where to start.

Tianqing Temple is not big, and Tan Zhifeng quickly came to the end, and in front of him was a bamboo forest that was evergreen all the year round.He looked around suspiciously, and was about to enter a meditation room to try first, but through the bamboo forest, under the bright moonlight, he seemed to vaguely see several tall courtyard walls, neatly tiled in the forest. Reflecting the light of the snow.